Meta has folded its half-built El Paso data centre into a joint venture with BlackRock, formalising a structure that keeps most of a $14bn project off its own books.
Under the agreement, funds managed by BlackRock will own 80% of the Texas campus and Meta the remaining 20%, though Meta stays on as the site’s construction manager, property manager, and sole tenant once the servers come online in 2028.
The venture puts total development at roughly $14bn, and the way that sum is split is really the point of the deal.
BlackRock is contributing about $4.9bn in cash at financial close, while Meta hands over the land and construction-in-progress it has already sunk into the site, worth around $2.3bn, and takes a one-time $1bn distribution to align the ownership.
The balance, some $12.5bn, arrives as debt raised against the project rather than against Meta, which lets the company book its use of the campus as rent instead of capital spending.
